Credit Risk

Moody’s Investor Services Inc., one of the country’s largest credit rating agencies, released a new report warning U.S. cities & states to prepare for the effects of climate change or risk having their credit rating downgraded, & Florida cities are most at risk.

Extreme Weather 2017

Southeast Freeze (2017) heavily damaged fruit crops across several southeastern states including Florida cost $1 BILLION (mid-March freezes are not unusual in the Southeast, however many crops were blooming 3+ weeks early due to unusually warm temperatures during the preceding weeks).

Tourism

Losses of more than $80 million
in state taxes & $70 million in
local taxes were incurred due to
out-of-state visitor declines because of Hurricane Irma.

Florida is one of the 5 biggest contributors to ocean-based tourism and recreation, accounting for more than half of this sector’s total employment and gross domestic product.

Florida's tourism industry could lose over $178 billion annually by 2100, according to The Union of Concerned Scientists.

Infrastructure

Cities, roads, railways, ports, and water supplies in Florida are vulnerable to the impacts of extreme storms, flooding, and sea level rise.

More than half of Florida’s storm water entities unable to address all capital improvement needs. Only 1 in 4 storm water utilities stated that today’s operation and maintenance capabilities were adequate only to meet the most urgent needs.

Beer

Hops and barley are affected by heat and drought. Water available for irrigating the hops largely comes from annual melting of winter snowpack from the mountains. A warming world means more rain versus snow in the winter, meaning irrigation may depend more on ground water, which has a higher mineral content and affects the beer’s taste.

Beer is also big business. Increasingly, locally owned craft brewers are having an impact on the industry landscape and on the economies in which they are located.

In 2016, sales of craft beer were up 10%, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total U.S. market. Local craft brewers contributed $67.8 billion to the U.S. economy in 2016, representing more than 456,000 jobs.

Coffee

Coffee vies with tea as the world’s favorite beverage and employs 100 million people worldwide in farming the beans alone.